Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Reviews
• Newsletter News
• More News
• Even More News

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

As you will soon see, most of this newsletter is going to be just that, news. I say this just in case those of you who actually read the “In This Issue” section were paying attention…

Let’s start out with this one:

Guitar Noise is proud to be the first media in the world to review the new album by Glass, their first new recording in 30 years. Glass was a seventies band that had never released an album, although they’d recorded enough material for several. In 2001 they released some of it under the title No Stranger to the Skies. We were the first to review this album and interview the band.

Success immediately followed and they were signed to Musea for a new album. And here it is. We were there at the start of their second coming and we’re here for the new album. Before everybody else.

You can read more about the new album from Glass in the reviews section.

Don’t forget you’ve still got a few days to try to win a copy of B. B. King – The Ultimate Collection, a new album out in celebration of BB King’s approaching 80th Birthday. We are taking part in a contest giving away copies of this CD.

This contest ends on June 16, so enter now if you’ve got the urge. Otherwise you might downhearted, baby…

And I’d like to take a brief moment to personally thank those of you who took more than a moment to download and listen to Waiting For Nancy, an old song of mine that is featured in the Songcrafters Page here at Guitar Noise. Many of you wrote to tell me about it and I appreciate your comments. I still perform this song, usually at open mikes and coffee house type situations, usually just me and my twelve-string guitar. Maybe one day I’ll do an “unplugged” version so that you can have fun comparing the two arrangements.

I’ve not been the greatest at returning email of late, and I’ll fill you all in on that in a moment or two. If you’d like to have a listen to Nancy, you’ll find it at my Soundclick page, which is www.soundclick.com/davidhodge. The incomparable bass work is by Roy Wogelius.

Okay, we’ve quite a lot to get through, so let’s take a break and look at the new articles and reviews that have gone up at Guitar Noise since our last newsletter. Then we’ll come back to discussing the latest news.

New Articles And Lessons

Recording And Releasing Your Own CD
by Chris Juergensen

Chris returns to the pages of Guitar Noise with some great advice on recording your own CD and the various ways one can go about it. Whether you’re planning on recording at home or going to a studio with your band, you’ll find some great advice and information here.

Reviews

Glass: Illuminations
CD Review by A-J Charron

Guitar Noise is proud to be the first media in the world to review the new album by Glass, their first new recording in 30 years.

Band Aide (A Band And Gig Survival Guide)
Book Review by A-J Charron

John and Angela Taylor have written a nice little pocket guide to putting a band together and getting gigs and all the fun in between, The Taylors address areas often neglected in other such books, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put a band together or to anyone who wants to join a band and be a serious part of it.

Maxon D & S II
Product Review by A-J Charron

The Maxon Distortion and Sustain II is an incredibly nice stomp box. Really nice. A nasty little distortion box with all the sustain you want for emphasizing parts of a song when you really want the distortion to resound and be present.

Bill Bruford: One Of A Kind
CD Review by A-J Charron

Winterfold’s re-releases of Bill Bruford’s albums continues with One of a Kind. This album was originally recorded after his stint with UK and before King Crimson and features a very interesting list of musicians.

Newsletter News

Some of you, quite understandably, wrote during the past week to say that you’d not gotten your weekly edition of Guitar Noise News. That was my fault, I’m afraid! Some very important projects (and more on this later) were all coming to a head and the newsletter ended up on the short end of the stick, time-wise.

Paul and I have been discussing possible changes in the newsletter for a while now. And, starting next month, we’re putting some of them into effect. The first change you’ll notice is that Guitar Noise News will no longer be a weekly newsletter. Instead, GNN will be sent out twice a month, on the first and fifteenth of any given month. The main reason for this is to free up more time on my end. It will also, happily enough, mean that you will get more interesting and “newsy” newsletters.

You will get a newsletter next week (June 19) and then we will switch over to the twice-a-month format, meaning that after next week’s Guitar Noise News the following one will be sent out July 1.

Obviously there will have to be some changes in our current newsletter. The Sunday Songwriters Group section, for instance, won’t work as it currently depends on being out once a week. But I think we can retool things so that we can please just about everyone.

So now is a great time for you to tell me what you would like to see in the new version of Guitar Noise News. We will still have a section on all the new articles and one on the latest reviews. I’d also like to bring back more educational sections, a “Tip of the Day” sort of thing.

Another big plan for the new newsletter is to make a lot of use of the FAQ pages of Guitar Noise. It is truly amazing how much material is there and how few people know where to find it.

I’d also like to do more things about the Guitar Noise community. After all, “community” is a lot about why Guitar Noise is such a great place. So perhaps highlighting more small performances, open mikes and jams might be worth doing.

This is why I’d like your thoughts concerning what you’d like to see in your newsletter. Together we can make Guitar Noise News even better. Please send any thoughts you might have to me. And I’ll keep everyone informed about the ideas being tossed about.

More News

One of the things that threw last week’s newsletter on the back burner was the Neil Young Song Seminar. It was a lot of fun and I hope that everyone who attended had a great time and learned a lot.

The various Guitar Noise Seminars are a joy to host and to teach. I’d like to do a few more of them in the fall, perhaps one each month and maybe even do another one in Chicago if I can arrange my travel plans well enough in advance. Time is going to be a precious commodity this year (and we’ll talk about that very shortly), so I’d like to get your feedback on how much interest there is on having more seminars in September, October and November. Drop me a line about what you’d like to attend, the possible topics and possible dates. I know at one point we were thinking about even doing a second Mini-Camp in October (it is so beautiful here in mid-October). So knowing whether or not there’s any interest in something like that would be very helpful.

It’s my hope that by planning this far in advance, we can start to make Guitar Noise Seminars occur regularly and perhaps even finally get them out on the road!

Even More News

I think that all of you are aware of the time and effort that goes into maintaining and improving Guitar Noise. “Time” is essentially key, as all of the folks who contribute do so voluntarily.

The reason I bring this up is that my available time is going to be greatly curtailed in the upcoming months. I have been asked to write a book. If all goes well, some time in the summer of 2006 you will be able to pick up The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Bass Guitar by David Hodge at your local bookstore or music shop. Or even order it online, if you so desire (Don’t preorder it! We’ll talk about that in the future…). I am positively thrilled to be given this opportunity and I truly hope to write something that will make all of you proud.

I am also hoping that The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Bass Guitar “breaks the ice” as it were (and, man, I’m throwing the clichés around today, aren’t I?) and that this book will be the first of many. I am in the process of trying to work out doing some books based on the types of lessons I do here at Guitar Noise. Imagine a book of a dozen to fifteen “easy songs” complete with a CD. Or perhaps even a DVD? With your support, this could happen.

But there are going to be a lot of deadlines and I am not going to be able to spend as much time on Guitar Noise as I would like. This is one of the reasons why I am trying to streamline things and to come up with ways to make the time I spend working at Guitar Noise much more efficient. I’ll still be doing all the editing of articles and lessons as well as writing the newsletters and even putting out my own articles and lessons as time allows. I have asked Nick (Uber-Moderator) Torres to pardon my prolonged absences from the Forum Pages.

As always, I thank you for your patience and support. None of these things would have happened without the kindness and encouragement of the Guitar Noise community.

I hope you all have a grand week. Stay safe and we’ll chat again next Sunday.

And, as always,

Peace

David